Welcome to Gleanings of Grace, a compilation of sovereign grace articles.
I collected bit by bit numerous articles by various authors and compiled them together (in no particular order). My desire is that He may be glorified. My thought was to make more Christ centered articles easily accessible to friends and others. My prayer is to set before brethren reflections that exhort, comfort, challenge, or even rebuke; and that His sheep not yet in His fold may hear His call.
As God plants these seeds, may it please Him that we may follow and gather and partake of His grace. I pray that we may come in all humilty and that God blinds us to ignorance and presses in our hearts that which is truth.
But Christ by John Gill
Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. (John 6:68)
As it was with Peter and the rest of the disciples, so it is with all sensible sinners, and true believers, who see there is no other to go to for life and salvation, but Christ; not to the law of Moses, which accuses, curses, and condemns, and by which there is neither life nor righteousness; nor to any creature, or creature-performance, for there is a curse on him that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm; nor to their own righteousness, which is impure and imperfect, and cannot justify before God, nor answer for them in a time to come; nor to their tears of repentance, which will not satisfy the law, atone for sins, or wash them away; nor to carnal descent, birth-privileges, a religious education, sobriety and civility, to trust to which is to have confidence in the flesh, which will be of no avail; nor to ceremonial services, or moral duties, or even evangelical ordinances, neither of which can take away sin. There is no other saviour but Christ to look to; no other mediator between God and men to make use of; no other physician of value for diseased and sin-sick souls to apply unto; no other fountain but His blood for polluted souls to wash in and be cleansed; no other city of refuge, or stronghold, for souls sensible of danger to flee unto and be safe; no other to come to as the bread of life where hungry souls may be fed; no other place of rest for those that are weary and heavy laden; nor is there any other where there is plenty of all grace and security from every enemy, as in Him; and therefore, to whom can they have recourse, but unto Him.
By John Gill
The Impotency of the Human Will by A.W. Pink
Does it lie within the province of man's will to accept or reject the Lord Jesus as Saviour? Granted that the Gospel is preached to the sinner, that the Holy Spirit convicts him of his lost condition, does it, in the final analysis, lie within the power of his own will to resist or yield himself up to God? The answer to this question defines our conception of human depravity. That man is a fallen creature all professing Christians will allow, but what many of them mean by "fallen" is often difficult to determine. The general impression seems to be that man is now mortal, that he is no longer in the condition in which he left the hands of his Creator, that he is liable to disease, that he inherits evil tendencies; but, that if he employs his powers to the best of his ability, somehow he will be happy at last. O, how far short of the sad truth! Infirmities, sickness, even corporeal death, are but trifles in comparison with the moral and spiritual effects of the Fall! It is only by consulting the Holy Scriptures that we are able to obtain some conception of the extent of that terrible calamity.
When we say that man is totally depraved, we mean that the entrance of sin into the human constitution has affected every part and faculty of man's being. Total depravity means that man is, in spirit and soul and body, the slave of sin and the captive of the Devil — walking "according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2). This statement ought not to need arguing: it is a common fact of human experience. Man is unable to realize his own aspirations and materialize his own ideals. He cannot do the things that he would. There is moral inability which paralyzes him. This is proof positive that he is no free man, but instead, the slave of sin and Satan. "Ye are of your father the Devil, and the lusts (desires) of your father ye will do." (John 8:44). Sin is more than an act or a series of acts; it is a man's make-up. It has blinded the understanding, corrupted the heart, and alienated the mind from God. And the will has not escaped. The will is under the dominion of sin and Satan. Therefore, the will is not free. In short, the affections love as they do and the will chooses as it does because of the state of the heart, and because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked "There is none that seeketh after God" (Rom. 3:11).
By A.W. Pink
trials and comfort by Brian DuFour
Trials are meant to hurt, physically, emotionally, or spiritually. But there is a trial that I have found that may hurt even more, a trail of comfort. All aspects of my life seem to be in order, my family life, my job, my friends all seem at peace. I soon take comfort in these, and my efforts tend toward keeping my life in this comfort zone. Before you know it, my eyes are focused on things on this earth, and not things above. My time in scripture, my time in prayer, my time seeking fellowship with Christ have dwindled away. Things are good, I must be doing something right. I have grown in grace and faith enough that He has blessed me with good times. Watch out, for anything that takes a sinners eyes off of Christ is dangerous ground. I am not saying that earthly blessings are a bad thing. I am thankful for every good thing that comes from His hand. But to make your comfort and ease in these things, it is to lose your comfort in Christ. You are still nothing more than a sinner saved by the grace of God, no matter how smooth or rough your life is sailing.
Do not take comfort in comfort, take true comfort in Christ alone. His righteousness and shed blood are true comfort to the sinners soul. “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith you God. Speak ye comfortable to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lords hand double for all her sins.” (Isaiah 40:1-2)
True comfort comes from seeing that Christ is my sanctification, Christ is my justification, Christ is my all. I rest in Him , and I rest on Him. His grace is so comfortable to a sinners soul
By Brian DuFour
Labels: faith, grace
Our Forms of Worship by C.H. Spurgeon
If I have gone through the general routine of the worship of my church, and then think that I have done something acceptable to God, while yet my heart has not communed with him in humble repentance, or faith, or love, or joy, or consecration; I make a great mistake. You may keep on with your religious performances for seventy years or more; you may not neglect a single rubric in the whole ritual; but it is all nothing unless the soul has fellowship with God. Godliness is a spiritual thing; for "God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
So far as our forms or worship help us towards this spiritual communion, they are good, but no farther. Everything brought to God as a sacrifice must be alive. Its blood must be poured out warm at the altar's foot. Oh that you and I might feel that lifting of the soul to God, and that buoyancy of heart, which true spiritual worship alone can bring to us! May our ritual, whether we have much or little, be our guide to God, and not our chain to hold us back from God! By
C.H. Spurgeon
Judgment! By William S. Plumer
"For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." Ecclesiastes 12:14
God has appointed a day in the which He will judge the world. Respecting this day several things are noticeable.
All shall be judged. Saints and sinners, great and small, living and dead, the servant and his master, the prisoner at the bar and the judge who sat on his trial, the assassin and the assassinated, the seducer and his victim, the invader and the invaded, the hireling and his oppressor, the king and his subjects, the fool and the wise man, the persecutor and the persecuted, the apostate, the hypocrite, the child of God and the child of the devil, shall all be there! No one shall be so mighty, and no one shall be so lowly—as to elude the eye or the sentence of Him who shall sit upon the throne of judgment! What a massive multitude will this be—when prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, saints of all ages; when sinners, liars, infidels, blasphemers, moralists, and murderers—shall all be there; when the sea and the dry land shall give up their dead; when death and hell shall deliver up the dead who are in them; when all who lived before the flood, all who have lived since the flood, and all who shall have lived to the end of time shall stand before God! This will be the first and the last assembly—in which are found every person whom God ever made.
It will be a day of astounding exposures. Villainy will be covered up no more. Every disguise will be taken away. There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hidden, that shall not be known. It will be a day of intense excitement. There will be no listless spectators of those scenes. Every faculty of the intellect and of emotion will be aroused to the highest possible exercise. Men may sleep under sermons concerning the judgment, but they will not be dull when they go to judgment!
It will also be a day of final separation. The precious and the vile; the wheat and the tares; the sheep and the goats; saints and sinners—shall no longer mingle together. The separations of this day will be final. The righteous and the wicked shall part that day to meet no more. It shall be a day of despair to all the unregenerate. Everywhere sinners will be crying to the rocks and the mountains: "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb!" Was ever despair more dreadful than this?
The judgment is coming! The Judge stands at the door! The time is short!
By William S. Plumer
